Ansel

I had another pattern published last week, two in one week! It was so exciting that I didn't have time to write about both of them!

I'd like to introduce Ansel, published in Clotheshorse Winter 2012/2013. Photos are curtsey of Clotheshorse.

Sometimes the design process can take a really long time. I finished knitting the original sample for this in December 2011, just before leaving China. The last two weeks we lived in China we lived in a hotel, and I remember blocking this on the spare bed in our hotel room. My husband wasn't overly amused that I was using the limited space we had to block a sweater. Here are some photos of the original, and my former assistant Jasmine is modeling. These first two photos of Jasmine are taken before the button was sewn on or before the sweater was blocked! Knit in amazingly soft Lotus Yarn Tibetan Yak Sportweight. 

Here's another photo of the sweater after blocking (and button sewn on) by Katy Doyle.

So I sent photos of this original bolero to Clotheshorse, and I'm impressed at their vision to transform my idea into a bright and colorful piece to fit into their Graphic theme. I honestly can't say I quite understood the look they were going for when I originally saw the bright blue and green Blue Sky Alpacas yarn in the box before knitting the sample. I also learned that I'm slightly allergic to alpaca. Now that all is said and done I'm just so excited to see the wonderful styling of the team at Clotheshorse and to finally see my pattern out in the world! 

Rockfall Sweater

I really can't relay just how excited I am to have a pattern published in Knitscene! It is my favorite knitting magazine. I love their modern knitting patterns and the beautiful styling. One thing that is crazy about the knitting design industry (and probably all clothing design) is that it's such a long time from when you first get the idea, submit the idea, knit the idea, and then the idea comes to life and sees the light of day. I can't remember when I submitted, but I remember knitting the sample sweater on the drive to DC to visit friends back in July. 

Anyways, here are some amazing photos of my Rockfall Sweater, the photos are from Knitscene. 

I get a lot of inspiration for my knitting patterns from magazines and ready-to-wear clothing. These two images were my inspiration for the Rockfall Sweater. I found them while prowling the internet. I use Pinterest to organize my knitting inspiration. 

I love the asymmetrical line of the sweater in the first photo, but I wanted my sweater to be wearable like the second top. Something that you could just throw on without having to think about which undergarments to wear with it. Then I saw that Knitscene was looking for asymmetrical knits for Spring, and I submitted this sketch:

Because I hate seaming the Rockfall Sweater is knit seamlessly, in the round, from the bottom up. The sleeves are knit separately in the round, and then the sleeves and body are joined and knit in one piece to the top of the neck. Let me tell you, this sweater did give me some trouble. Getting the lace yoke decreases to look just right took quite a bit of trial and error. This sweater as shown in Knitscene is worn with negative ease, to give it a modern and fitted look. I really adore this sweater, and I hope that eventually I will knit one for myself. 

I can't wait until this issue is in stores! I'm definitely going to have to go visit it in at least one LYS. 

New Pattern: Two Hands Make A Heart

It's here! The second pattern in my Two Hands series: Two Hands Make A Snowflake. The first in the series was Two Hands Make A Heart. I really love this pattern. I think that snowflakes are much more gender neutral, and I love the fingerless gloves with the flip top because they are great for when you are out and about and need your fingers to use your phone (or pick your nose?). Once again I am indebted to Katy & Kevin Doyle for their photography. I especially like Katy's expression in the first photo. 

These convertible gloves are available in two sizes, just like the heart ones. Do you want to knit the hearts onto these convertible mittens? You can, because the charts are the same size! Just knit the pattern for the base glove of your choice, and insert the chart you'd like! I'm working on additional charts for this series, as well as one more base glove. Now through Friday 23:59 EST enter the code BOGO, and you'll get both patterns for the price of one! 

In print!

HOLY COW! I knew this was going to happen one day, but I am so super duper excited to see my name in print, next to photos of my pattern! Seriously! I began knitting in 2008, and designing in 2011, and it was January 2012 after TNNA that I decided I was going to make a go of becoming a knitwear designer, and here I am, less than a year later, with a book in hand that has my name in it! I can't tell you how excited I am!

A lot of our mail goes to our in-laws house, so when I heard that there was a flat envelope with my name on it from F+W Media I just assumed it was another rejection letter (it comes with the territory, unfortunately) but imagine my joy when I opened the package and found this book!

This book is sold at Joann Fabrics, and also on Amazon!

Quick & Simple Knits for Babies & Children

My pattern is on page 26!

I am still also selling this pattern online through Ravelry: Cash Baby! Hat & Shoes

So of course on my agenda for this week is to visit the Joann Fabrics near my house to see if I can visit the book in person in the store! 

New Pattern: Eros Cowl

I published my Eros Cowl yesterday! Eros is the brother of Anteros and is the greek god of love. Eros is also known as cupid. The myth goes that Anteros, the god of requited love, was created as a companion for Eros, because in order for love to be complete it must be reciprocated. This cowl, much like the Anteros Shawl, is a cowl that you will love to knit and wear. The simple lovely cowl will love you back as much as you love knitting it! It features a beautiful and simple diagonal eyelet pattern that exemplifies the silky beauty of Bergère de France Origin’ Soie. 

This pattern was actually inspired by the yarn. When I first saw this yarn at Warm 'N Fuzzy I knew that I wanted to make something with the beautiful silk. I wanted something that would show off the beautiful sheen and drape of 100% silk. Of course you could easily substitute a different fiber and weight yarn, because this cowl is super customizable. (And instructions for customizing are included in the pattern!)

Now through Christmas Day you can get $1 off this pattern by entering the code EROS at checkout. 

Hearts!

I'm going through a bit of a heart phase right now. No, I'm not 13, but hearts are just so cute! I've also always loved symmetry, and I figured, why not take advantage of the symmetry of hearts, by cutting it right in half!

Heartigan Girl's Sweater

My most recent interpretation of hearts was first seen in this post: too cute heart sweater. Well, now the pattern has been published, and you can see it here: Heartigan. It's been published as part of KnitPicks IDP. I originally named this sweater Heart Apart, until this happened one night:

Me: "Blah blah  blah heart cardigan"
Brian: "Is heartigan the pink one with the red heart?"
Me: "Heartigan? That's a good name!"
Brian: "Isn't that what you named it?"
Me: "No.."
Brian: "Oh, that's what I thought you said"
Me: "Nope, but it's clever, I'm going to re-name it! Maybe the fact that your going deaf isn't so bad..."

Two Hands Make A Heart Mittens

I also recently published the Two Hands Make A Heart mittens, with the hearts wrapping around the edge of the hands, so that when you put them together it makes one complete heart.

This lead me to think about other symmetrical shapes, and now I'm working on a couple other gloves in this series, but more on that later! 

Barnsley

This is the super exciting news that I have been DIEING to share! My first pattern published in Twist Collective: Barnsley! The sample shown in Twist Collective's photo below, is knit with Blue Moon Gaea Sport. It is a lovely yarn! Photography by Carrie Bostick Hoge.

The first sweater, however, was knit with Anzula Cricket. This pattern was really inspired by Sabrina's beautiful colors and yarn. I loved the soft comfort of this yarn, and I thought a sweater knit in a lovely sport weight yarn was the kind of sweater you could wear every single day, so I had to design a classic and beautiful sweater that you would want to wear every single day! To me this is the perfect sweater, it's warm and cozy without being too heavy, the style is classic and easy. To me the beauty is in the details. This sweater is knit seamlessly from the bottom up (because I hate to sew!) and features deep ribbing on the sleeves and body so that it hugs your curves without any waist shaping. There are short rows in the bust that are written out for cup sizes, so no matter your proportions you can have a perfectly fitted sweater. And my favorite part: the saddle shoulders. I love the simple geometry of it, and it's quite fun to knit! A little bit of spice after all the ribbing and stockinette! Below are some photos of Katy Doyle in the original Barnsley, knit in Anzula Cricket. 

New Pattern: Anteros Shawl

I'm super excited about another new pattern: the Anteros Shawl! I've blogged about this shawl a few times, last month, and way back in July. This shawl was the sample for my Design Your Own Shawl Class at Warm 'N Fuzzy, which is going on now! It's an awesome class, and I'm super excited to be teaching it, and I really enjoy talking about and explaining lace charting, shawl construction, and the math involved in shawls.

There were a ton of requests for THIS shawl however, so I decided to finally write up the pattern. I had a lot of help along the way from some amazing test knitters who caught a few very silly errors, and they also knit it in all different weights from lace to DK. One of the things I love most about this shawl is how customizable it is! You can start the lace stripes at any point in the pattern, make them as wide or as narrow as you'd like, make the shawl as big as you'd like, and you get the idea.

The original name for this shawl was Background Lace Shawl, because that's the name of the stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting. I thought this was kind of a boring name, so then I thought about what other people like to name knitting patterns. It's hard to try to explain my train of thought because it's so jumbled, but I somehow decided that I was sick of all the unrequited love (not in my personal life, but in books and movies), because who doesn't want to be loved back? So I decided to name this shawl Anteros, for the Greek god of requited love.

Now through November 18 (which is the beginning of my KAL on Ravelry) you can get 50% off on this pattern! Enter the code LOVE12 at checkout or follow this link. 

A big thanks to Katy and Kevin Doyle for the photography!

Too Cute Heart Sweater

I know I'm bias, but I think my niece is super duper cute. I also LOVE this sweater. Yes, it's my pattern, but I still think it's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. And in case anyone is wondering I had sketched this idea long before all the heart sweaters started cropping up at department stores.

This is a new pattern I'm working on for Knit Picks IDP. The pattern is now in the testing phase, so if you're interested here's the link.

This past weekend Brian, Suzie and I took our nephews and niece to Hillridge Farms. They have a huge barn full of hay where the boys spent over an hour throwing themselves/each other into the hay. Our niece was so overwhelmed with exciting things to do she struggled to decide which one she wanted to do first. It was a little chilly and overcast, but it was perfect weather for us to try out the new sweater, and for me to get a few pictures.

I posted photos of this shawl back in July. I made it with Swans Island Organic Merino Fingering, an amazingly soft and squishy yarn in lovely colors as a shop sample for Warm 'N Fuzzy for my design your own shawl class. Well, the shawl itself has gotten a lot of interest while hanging in the shop, and so I'm finally going to write and publish the pattern. The shawl is off in the mail to Katy to be properly photographed (you'll see from the evidence below that I'm a terrible photographer) and this pattern is ready to be test knit! If you'd like to test knit this for me, I'm doing it in the Free Pattern Testers Group on Ravelry.

Malabrigo October Stockpile Design Challenge

the Malabrigo Junkies group on Ravelry is hosting a series of events for October Stockpile. One of the events is a design challenge. The challenge is to come up with a pattern that uses just one skein of their highly variegated yarn. Of course you could knit these patterns with any of their yarns (I love them all!) But they are trying to feature some of the highly variegated colors that are so popular, but seem to be underrepresented in patterns. So, here's what I'm working on. It's an envelope bag/e-reader. Here you can see I stole my husband's kindle for the photos. The bag is knit completely in one piece, with no seaming! Boy, do I really hate seaming. The bag is knit from top to bottom, and then the sides are picked up. It has a magnetic snap closure and a hook & eye closure on the sides, so that you can completely open it or use it as a bag. Instead of trying to explain it maybe I should just post some pictures eh?

Anyways, I'm currently in the testing phase. If you'd like to test knit this for me please let me know! Otherwise, I'll keep you posted on what happens next!

WIP Wednesday: Pine Cone Shawl

I can't share most of the things I'm working on right now, I actually have two things blocking right now, which makes me feel very productive. Here's one of my WIPs, a shop sample of the Pine Cone Shawl. This is made with Frog Tree Pediboo, which is a merino and bamboo blend that is really nice to work with. It has the silkiness of bamboo without the splitty quality of 100% bamboo. I haven't gotten to the lace section yet, and honestly I haven't been working on it very much.

WIP

The original

New Pattern: Lovely Lady Arms

I am publishing a new pattern today! I knit these gloves when I came back from Germany in March, or maybe it was April? After that they sort of sat around for a while, because it seemed silly to publish a glove pattern in the summer. Who wants to knit gloves in the peak of the heat? Although it's not exactly fall here (it's still very hot and humid) I am dreaming of fall, and there's nothing like knitting fall accessories to get you ready for cool weather!

These gloves are made with one skein of Lotus Yarns Cashmere DK. I really love cashmere, but like everyone else I can't afford to knit a sweater out of cashmere. I also think cashmere is something that is so soft and cuddly that to appreciate it you have to wear it against the skin. So that's how these gloves were born. They use up almost the whole skein of yarn, because I really hate to waste yarn, especially cashmere!

Maybe you've already guessed but the name of these mitts comes from a Black Eyed Peas song that was popular a few years ago, but they were not singing about arms...

You can find the pattern on Ravelry: Lovely Lady Arms

Thanks to Katy Doyle for the awesome photos!

New Pattern: Mimi Shawl

I'm really excited to be publishing the Mimi Shawl today! This pattern has been in the works for a while, and finished testing over two months ago! There were a lot of things that delayed me, most of them being busy with other things. Then I realized that my incredibly talented photographer friend Katy Doyle was coming to town, so I waited to publish the pattern until I could get her to photograph it. This is extremely rare, but I'm actually in my own pattern photos! Crazy! 

Oh, you want me to actually tell you about the shawl? 

I wrote this shawl for three weights: lace, fingering, and sport. The yarn in the photos is Lotus Yarns Mimi, which is 100% pure brushed mink. The minks are brushed, so no minks were killed to make this shawl. The pattern has both written and charted directions for the lace, and I made a handy table with stitch counts for the eyelet portion. The table came about because I made errors in the pattern, and during testing my testers were having a terrible time because of the errors, so I made this table so that they could at least make sure they had the correct stitch counts. Even after correcting all the errors they liked the table enough that I decided to put it in the final pattern as well. Hopefully it's as helpful to everyone who knits it as well.